Doing it Right.
You know you’ll need to set this one up right. It’s sensitive, regulated and needs approval to even get off the ground.
You want a Quality Manager. You know you really need one, yet the costs of employing one right now is going to cut into your project budget because you’ll probably need to hire them on a full-time basis. They are a professional, after all.
Adding up the on-costs of employment such as superannuation, holiday and sick pay, ongoing training, Seminar attendance, Meeting time, printing, audits and paper costs a base salary of $100,000 p.a. for an “average quality manager” can soar to over $150,000 p.a.
Bringing in a quality manager early adds a view to the project that addresses issues beyond the logistical and quantitative measures of “will this equipment and site make and store the amount we want”. It adds factors such as ease of cleaning, potential health hazards, risks to products and eventual consumers, and it is these points that can save you from eventual quality failures that we’ve seen happen too often when the project assumed that quality only needed to be added after all the equipment, land and process lines have been arranged.
You have to offset these costs with a bit of long term, quality manager style thinking.
The Good News
In the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Dr. Covey says, “Begin with the End in Mind means to begin each day, task, or project with a clear vision of your desired direction and destination, and then continue by flexing your proactive muscles to make things happen”.
In the spirit of this statement, consider that hiring a quality manager does not have to mean a full timer on staff.
A consultant can help if engaged early in the project and the costs can be kept down as you only need to hire them for a fraction of your operational time. In effect, you only hire them for what you need, without all the extra costs that a full time employee attract. This means you can engage them early to make sure those later failures are minimised. Quality and budget, both achieved. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_costs
Choosing your consultant
The following link lists five (5) characteristics you should seek in a consultant: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/238710
- Unimpeachable character
- Solid experience
- Creative problem-solving skills
- Outstanding communication skills
- Excellent interpersonal skills
FAPIC combine all of these. Our Directors have combined experience of over 70 years in the food industry and have held senior roles, dealt with all levels of company and government and been involved in numerous projects throughout a food company.
FAPIC can also bring in experts from a number of different disciplines such as purchasing, accounting, engineering and food technology to fill any gaps and bring a positive result while maintaining quality.
We aim to take time out of innovation processes, leverage purchase prices and optimise production and process flows to take out unnecessary costs and drive cash to the bottom line or your pocket.
We can even set up a system to manage your ongoing qualitya needs for less than the cost of a full time quality manager.
